<nettime> ivogram x4: what's next, for sale, who needs them, and interest due?

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

"Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
     What's next?
     For sale!
     Who needs them?
     Interest due.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:55:46 -0400
Subject: What's next?

W.'s administration will have catastrophic consequences for the 
Union - to finance the expensive adventures abroad, federal 
government impoverished the States pushing all the social services 
costs on them (only 2 will end up this fiscal year with positive 
balance, and California, the 6th world's economy, is de facto 
bankrupt). By the year 2042 the US will be able to pay only 73% of 
soc sec benefits. The cost of Iraq occupation is $48B a year - 
DOUBLE the pre-war annual GDP of that country! How can that 
make sense? Bush is pillaging the States to pay fat-cats that put 
him in office, who profit from over-priced contracts, and all that is 
packaged and sold to perpetually frightened populace in form of 
'security measures' and 'war on terrorrism' - this is literally lifted 
from Milosevic's rulebook. 3/4 of the military is tied up in Iraq, 
Afghanistan, Kosovo, and with an obligation in Liberia. Bemusingly, 
the US cannot take on North Korea with the available forces, 
particularly if China helps N.K. defend itself, and N.K. openly and 
brazenly flauts around that they have the bomb. ANd in Iraq, things 
are moving nowhere pretty quickly: Saddam's forces are obviously 
waging an underground guerilla warfare against the US, killing and 
destroying something somewhere daily (like Tito's partisans did to 
Germans in the 1942...). US is going more in debt. China is 
making money of it. So, in the real clash between the two main 
rival economies of 21st century, who do you think is going to win? 
Bush is such a disaster, that I refuse to believe that he has any 
chances to win the next elections, unless he declares a martial law 
and cancels elections alltogether.
ivo 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:55:51 -0400
Subject: For sale!

Despite sane advices and running contrary to long-term common 
sense, Croatian government went forward and sold its oil giant INA 
to Hungarian oil giant MOL. MOL acquired 25%+1 share for $505M 
U.S. This is 1/8 of what the U.S. spends monthly just to run its 
occupation force in Iraq. It places INA-s value at $2B roughly. The 
sale gave MOL a controlling stake in INA.

Tudjman's government presided over the sale of power distribution 
(Enron), telecommunications (Deutsche Telekom), merchant navy 
(various buyers), 85% of banking industry (Italian and Austrian 
banks, mostly). Racan's government sold the rest of the banks, 
hotels, ships, and now the oil industry.

A friend of mine from Zagreb wonders what would the next 
government sell to fill up its campaign coffers before the elections. 
NOTHING. Because nothing is left. Hmmm, maybe the railroads, 
and the Croatian Airlines - but they are not really that good earners 
for anybody to rush to buy them. Future Croatian governments will 
obviously have to think of some other way to get funded.

ivo

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 18:39:32 -0400
Subject: Who needs them?

I am completely perplexed as to why does the US government 
need the military tribunals for terrorists?! I mean, if they already 
decided that anybody declared by the President to be a terrorist is 
as guilty as sin, denying those poor loosers any rights of due 
process (no open trial, no trial by jury, no right to chose a lawyer, 
no right to talk to anybody, no right to know all the evidence held 
against you, no right to appeal to an independent judiciary), holding 
them incomunicado at undisclosed places around the planet, 
preferrably such places that condone torture, WHY there is a need 
for tribunals at all? Military can just milk the information they need 
with stress and duress techniques out of the unfortunate suckers 
that got caught, and disappear them thereafter - who would know? 
This is simply a hipocrisy to allow for an illusion of justice, while 
there is really no intention to dispense it. The most fantastic 
aspect of the proposed tribunals is that even if the suspect is 
acquitted there is no guarantee that he would walk - he may be 
held continuously and indefinitely by the US authorities as a 
security threat. What exactly would then the acquital actually 
mean? And why on Earth would such a trial be neccessary to 
anybody but a few Washington's sanctimonious bureaucrats?

ivo

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 21:33:30 -0400
Subject: Interest due.

When Roman Emperors needed money for war or "re-election" (not 
getting stabbed on the stairs of the Senate, in those days) they 
stripped the State's temples from gold. Croatian (and other Eastern 
European) presidents sell state-owned industries. And Bush 
plunders the poor, weak, feeble, those who can't fight back.

New York State employers just received an 'important notice' about 
the interest assessment surcharge. The rate of 0.06% doesn't 
seem outrageously high, but it is outrageous that it is there. "The 
Commissioner of Labor is required to levy I.A.S. on unemployment 
insurance taxable wages at annual rate sufficient to produce 
revenues needed to pay interest due on loans from the Federal 
Government" - says the letter. Oh?

So, first the Federal Government takes the money from the people 
in form of taxes, and gives nothing back in form of social services, 
leaving all of that to the States. Then the States are required to 
comply with it, but the system is not designed for States to have 
enough resources to do so. Eventually, they have to BORROW 
money from the Federal Government, and, now the interest is due!

What a sick scheme! So, what does Federal Government do with 
all this dough? Wages wars. Occupies foreign countries. Spreads 
disaster and mayhem. For the profit of handful of well-connected 
individuals that head the corporations always contracted by 
Pentagon. So, what's the difference between the U.S. and Russia, 
really?

ivo

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net